CHAPTER
ONE:
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
There have been a
number of attempts to present models of motivation which list a specific number
of motivating needs with the implication that these lists are all-inclusive and
represent the total picture of needs. Unfortunately, each of these models has
weaknesses and gaps, and we are still without a general theory of motivation.
All organizations are concerned with what should be
done to achieve or sustain high levels of performance through people.
Consequently the subject of adequate motivation of employees as derived from
the so many attempts made by management practitioners is to look for the best
way to manage employees so as to accomplish an objective or mission with the
least inputs of materials and human resources available.
A lot of theoretical
concept, principles and techniques of management have evolved in response to
these challenges. In general management, authors have tended to view motivation
as a key component of the managerial function of leading or directing. However,
leading or leadership style, although an important factor in determining the
attitude of employees towards assigned job or responsibilities is not the only
determinant, other managerial function such as planning, controlling, staffing
and organizing also play a vital role.
In any serious and
competitive society, employees are one of the tools for economic progress.
Their welfare is taken into serious cognizance because without a dedicated
workforce, an organization crumbles. The nations (Nigeria) reward system is
probably the poorest in the entire globe. Employees are used and abused
harassed, offended and discarded without any appreciation for their
contribution to their organization and to the society at large.
It is therefore
apparent that the issue of adequate motivation of employees has relevance in
managerial function and activities that are aimed at directing the productive
effort of the workforce towards achieving organizational objectives. Knotz et
al (1980) holds that management strives to create and maintain an environment
that is conducive to the performance of individuals who are working together in
groups towards the accomplishment of pre-selected objectives.
Conversely, Motivation
according to Strauss and Sayles, can be provided for employees, using the
following methods,
1.
The
traditional approach
2.
Human
relations approach.
3.
Implicit
bargaining.
4.
Competition,
and
5.
Internalized
motivation
The
traditional approach to motivate, which is often referred to as the economic
man model assumes the following,
i.
The only reason why people work is to
earn money and that they will work only if driven to it by fear of losing their
jobs.
ii.
Since no one likes to works, people will
try to get away with doing as little as they can. Management must tell every
employee exactly what to do, spell out every rule and give the worker the
narrowest possible range for discretion.
Secondly the human
relations approach emphasizes motivation basically through satisfying the employees’
security and benefits that provide some protection against illness, old age and
unemployment. The social need for belonging should be met by various recreational
activities and by the development of strong cohesive work groups.
The third approach to
motivation is the implicit bargaining approach. When using this approach,
management encourages employees to do a reasonable amount of work by agreeing
to be more flexible in terms of supervision.
The fourth approach to
motivation is around competition for the pay increases and promotion that
accompany outstanding work.
This is important
because it helps the employee to satisfy various forms of need satisfaction.
Some of these include a sense of accomplishment, and added social prestige.
The last of the
approaches under consideration is internalized motivation. This deals with
providing opportunities for need satisfaction through doing the job itself.
This approach uses Herzberge’s motivators, which means that management should
create conditions under which employees will willingly and voluntarily work
towards organizational objectives because they enjoy the work.
Economic motivation is
de-emphasized and more stress is put on age mode. These methods can either be
used alone or in combination. It is further stated that usually most manager
uses a combination of all five methods. It is important to consider the issue
of motivation in organizations because of the interleave desire of people to
pursue their own personal aspirations while the organizational objects are
being met.
In spite of all these
apparent attendant problems of motivation, and productivity, every organization
do necessarily seek means of ensuring continuous productivity and performance,
which would be geared towards the accomplishment of organization goals. The organizational
system under study cannot be said to be different in any way, in terms of
producing the results for which it was set up.
Motivation also finds
relevance in the behavioural sciences, especially in psychology where attempts
are made to find out the, what, when, how and why of human behaviour. Nigerian
authors Gbadamosi and Adebakin (1996) posit that motivation is an aspect of the
behavioural sciences that attempts to answer the question of why human’s beings
behave the way they do.
1.2 STATEMENT OF
RESEARCH PROBLEM
It is fundamentally unrealistic to
assume that people would continue to find satisfaction in co-operating with
organization’s affairs if no interest is shown in their individual needs and
problems. It is agreed that in spite of whatever gains must have been achieved
in ensuring adequate compensation among employees around the world, existing
compensation programmes have failed to attract, hold and motivate employees
because the individual worker is not considered and he or she did not
participate in the planning and designing of such motivational incentives
before its execution or implementation.
However, the economic and social
development of Nigeria depends to a great extent on the ability of the public
services to attract and retain the services of qualified man power. Therefore,
the concept of motivation has economic, social, behavioral and legal basis
consequence.
The general attitude of
the employees towards work should be of great concern to the management.
Every organization, no
matter its operations, makes use of its manpower in order to get the best out
of them, to ensure high performance and for the realization of corporate
objectives. However, understanding and influencing the human behavior requires
knowledge of human needs in an organization. Most psychologists are in
agreement that human behavior is not completely disorganized and without
motivation. The human personality is composed of multiple elements that are
related to effects - some degree of apparent balance. These elements, according
to Flippo (1980) are shrouded and categorized by psychologist as
“physiological, social and equisetic”, and which changes with time and
circumstances.
Motivation is the force
that energizes, behavior, give, direction to behavior, and underlies the
tendencies to persist. Efforts to understand the motivation process have
centered on several major elements, needs cognitive activities and record as whereas
re-enforcement issue.
It is a known fact that
organization cannot succeed without adequately motivating it employees. The
importance of motivation to the overall development and performance of any
organization cannot be over emphasized. When attitude of workers is generally
negative and characterized by dissatisfaction, frustration, lack of interest
and commitment, an individual or group with this kind of unhealthy disposition
cannot be in a position to voluntarily release his energy to increase his
productivity or performance in the interest of the organization. Such attitude
to work is a detriment to the survival of organization in general.
The
central purpose and objective
of this
research study is to
understand the impacts
of motivation on employees performance in an Organization.
However,
the objectives of the research include inter-alia:-
- To identify the factors that cause poor performance of staff
ii.
To examine the factors that motivate and
sustain employees performance and productivity
- To identify causes for work dissatisfaction and a feeling of frustration of employees
- To examine the motivational strategies being adopted by the management to enhance the staff performance and productivity.
Finally, to proffer
solutions and make appropriate recommendations for ensuring positive job
attitude, efficient cum high performance.
1.4.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Research
questions are guidelines and they serve as objective for the researcher in the
course of the study. The research questions are as follows:
1. Is there a
significant correlation between motivation and performance?
2. Does
motivation benefits commensurate with employees’ high performance?
3. What are
the pros and cons of motivation in an organization?
4. Does organizations
in Nigeria motivate their employees?
1.5 HYPOTHESES.
In
other to be able to achieve the objective of this research, the following hypotheses
are hereby developed for testing. Note that H0 is the Null
hypothesis that takes on negative form, while the H1 is the
Alternative Hypothesis that takes on positive form:
Hypothesis
One:
H0:
There is no significant correlation between motivation and high level of
performance among employees
H1:
There
is a significant correlation between motivation and high level of performance
among employees
Hypothesis
Two:
H0:
Motivational incentives (salaries, training, promotion, fringe benefits and
other allowances) provided by organization do not commensurate with workers
high performance
H1:
Motivational incentives (salaries, training, promotion, fringe benefits and
other allowances) provided by organization do commensurate with workers high
performance
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE
OF THE STUDY
The quality and
productivity of a country’s workforce is an important factor in it economic
development. Therefore, every organization must continue to strives to improve
the quality of her human resources in order to realizes its goals and
objectives as well as contribute to the economic development of the country. To
improve the performance of employees, it is essential to know what motivates
them and how various environmental factors affects their behavior and
performance at the workplace. Therefore, the significance of the study cannot
be over emphasized.
The study will serve as
a guide to the organizational policy makers, human resources manager and other
stakeholders in both private and public sector.
The policy makers will
find it very useful, especially in planning motivational strategies to enhance employees’
performance and productivity in an organization. The human resources, managers
in both public and privates sectors will find it useful in the management of
the human elements in an organization.
This research becomes relevant
in the sense that, it seeks to identify the employees’ satisfaction and their
performance as a result of certain motivational incentives.
The study will be of
immense benefit to those managing the affairs and resources of organizations-it
will assist these managers or administrators in understanding how best to
improve upon their existing conditions of service of the employees and also with
the view to improve employees performance and thereby increasing organizational
efficiency, effectiveness and productivity.
Finally, the study will
equally serve as a reference material for the prospective researcher who
intends to make an in-depth study of the job performance and productivity.
1.7 JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY
Motivation has had very serious impacts on
organizational performance. Serious attention needs to be drawn towards
addressing the issue and it is based on this reason this study was undertaken.
The outcome of this research will be useful to
organizations, particularly policy makers, administrators and the general
public.
Finally, as a
document, this study will provide more information that would add to the scanty
knowledge already available about motivation. It is hoped that the outcome of
this study would arose further interest and research into other aspects of motivation
as it affects all organizations both public and private.
The
research is actually to investigate the impact of motivation in organizations. However, to cover the entire private or public
Service in Nigeria will be cumbersome.
Thus, the researchers selected Federal Inland Revenue Service, Abuja, which the researcher could conveniently
cover as a case study.
Because
of resource constraints, Federal Inland Revenue Service, Abuja, was studied. All the department and cadres of employees
were covered in the study to examine the impact of motivation.
DELIMITATION: A lot of obstacles were
encountered by the researcher during the process of putting
the project together.
Among
them are:
a). Time Constraints: A limited time frame
was allotted to the research for gathering of data and sourcing research
materials. Also, lectures and preparation for final year exam is one of the
limiting factors.
b). Finance: Money was required at all
stages of this study- money to stay connected online, buy books, moving around
to various libraries etc. was one of the major limitations.
c). Confidentiality: The researcher faced the problems of confidentiality. Federal
Inland Revenue Service employees sometimes were not willing to give out information.
Although this problem was dealt with by
the researcher assuring members of staff that the information given will be used
only for academic purposes and was to be treated as confidential. But be it as
it may, the researcher gave the project its best.
1.9
DEFINITIONS OF TERMS.
i.
IMPACT: oxford
advanced learner’s dictionary, international student’s edition defines
impact as the effects of something on other things. To cause, produce or have
as a result.
ii.
MOTIVATION (S.M. Ngu. 1994
:) Defined “motivation” as a driving need and satisfaction that
encourage worker to work hormonally, effectively, efficiently, effectively
harder in anticipation for higher reward.
iii.
EMPLOYEE: is
someone who is recruited in an organization and is paid to work or serve
the organization to which he/she is employed.
iv.
PERFORMANCE: This
indicates how well or satisfactory a person is fulfilling the
requirement of his position on the basis of result achieved and his/her action
on the job. The researcher looked at performance as the assessment of output in
a giver task or work with a view of achieving result.
v.
PRODUCTIVITY:
Melli (1987) defined productivity as the measure of how well
resources are brought together in an organization and utilized for
accomplishing a set of result. The researcher sees productivity as reaching the
highest level of performance with less expenditure of resources.
vi.
HYPOTHESIS:
A working definition of hypothesis is a speculative, a hunch,
conjectural statement which a researcher is not too sure about it, credibility
but is aware that a relationship exist. S.M. Ngu (2005) defined
hypothesis as a temporary guess statement of the relationship between two or
more variables e.g. dependent and independent variable).
vii.
RESEARCH DESIGN:
According to S.M Ngu (2005): Research design is refers to the
methods, techniques and procedures or steps to be taken for data collection and
analysis It depends on the type and purpose of a particular research.
ix.
JOB SATISFACTION:
According to Locke (1989) defined Job satisfaction as a situation
in which a worker’s job fulfills what he values.
x.
EXTRINSIC MOTIVATION:
Fritz Heider (1970) said that this motivation comes from outside of
the performers money is the most obvious example but coercion and threat of
punishment are common extrinsic motivation.
xi.
JOB ENRICHMENT:
Job enrichment entails a situation where additional responsibilities,
which are meant for certain officers, are delegated and added to a particular
subordinate’s officer. The assumption is that making job more interesting will
increase job satisfaction, motivation and performance.
xii.
LEADERSHIP: Roberts (1978):
defined Leadership as “the ability of management to induced subordinates
to work toward group goals with confidence and keenness”.
xiii.
SALARIES/ WAGES: These
are refers to as financial compensation for work done. Salaries are
financial compensation for work done by standing professional or clerical
personnel whose salaries are paid monthly.
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